Have you been out for dinner yet?
This place is absolutely awesome if you like fish.
Get there if you can and just eat what they’ve got. it’s all good. (and not at all expensive)
I find Santorini to be my childhood image of Heaven.
Three nights each in Salerno, Capri and Sorrento? You have so not earned that frowny face.
I’d say miss Naples. So much beauty in Capri, Positano, Amalfi and maybe most beautiful at all–Ravello!
Being alone in the canyon, specifically on the Fairyland Loop Trail, was indeed amazing as it seems there are only rows and rows of hoodoos and hills forever.
It’s also the easiest place to take pictures as they all come out great.
I don’t mind camping half of the time or less on a road trip as long as the campsite is drivable-up-to and the neighboring campers are quiet.
I don’t mind cityscapes as long as they keep the post-modern architecture to a minimum and there is at least something to break up the monotony such as occasionally differing styles or parks.
Yes, I was struck when I saw for the first time pictures of Cape Town. It was last year, and until then I had absolutely no clue it was a gorgeous place. I was picturing some kind of soulless modern port city like, say, Rotterdam, except with less history and much more bad parts inherited from the appartheid era, presumably build on some flat, empty land that nobody in his right mind would want to visit if he didn’t have to.
Ooh yes! I saw that place. Looked at the menu and wanted to eat there. My husband, however, over the course of our vacation, ate a carton of tomatoes, and drank too many lemon ice drinks. That, coupled with the red wine, and espresso, and a stomach ulcer left him feeling pretty crappy the last few days. I warned him, but he didn’t listen.
So ya, we didn’t eat out 2 of the nights in Sorrento. Next time!
That’s fair. 
That is a shame, we ate there a couple of times (got there early…can’t book a table so by late evening there’s a line of fabulous, elegant Italians looking annoyed in a queue)
My daughter and I shared a towering plate of little sardines, dusted with seasoned polenta and fried in olive oil. They were only about four or five inches long and when you squished them with your fork the whole little fillet lifted off the bone. As good as anything I’ve ever eaten. (and about 6 euro for a big plate).
Next time indeed! I think the whole area is wonderful.
The most beautiful place in the world is my bed on a Saturday morning when I wake up before my wife and see her lying there asleep.
Other than that, I like Luangwa National Park in Zambia at sunset. There are a couple of bends along the river that are lined up just right so that when the sun sets you can see animals coming down to drink along with the sun turning to that African orange/yellow and bouncing off the water. Or when you’re driving through the scrub and you just emerge into the Savannah and you’ll see a thousand animals just sitting out there in front of you. Definitely gorgeous.
I’m partial to rock outcroppings in mid-Appalachia. Places like Seneca Rocks, WV. I love the limestone juxtaposing with the deep greens of the forest. The Bavarian Alps have a lot of places like this you’ll have these deep stream valleys with grass and scattered spruce surrounded by steep wooded mountains with random stone outcroppings, especially when you get a little north of the Austrian border and out of the real high mountains. The Rockies have some places like this as well. Glacier NP has some gorgeous vistas and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Lake Louise in Banff which is surreal. The Fairmont Chateau at the east end looks like a fairytale manor and then the west just rises into these glacier peaks in this crazy blue water - worth putting on a bucket list.)
I like beaches, but I’m more partial to the mid-Atlantic than to tropical beaches. I love the seagrass on the dunes at places like Assateague. My favorite beach though for beauty I only went to once. It was a small cottage or lodge along the shores of Lake Malawi and the floor had living stone in it. It looked out on a small but pretty little beach that had tall round boulders that seemed to frame the beach along with scattered trees. It was close to a fishing village (though most of the lake is) and you’d see the odd fisherman in their dugout canoe providing background to this framed beach. It was ridiculously beautiful and I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the place. It must have been near Salima and I seem to think it was south of the Livingstonia, but I can’t recall. I was there with some friends and I need to ask if they remember, but anyway. Oh, I also like the north end ofTulum beach just south of Tulum ruins in Mexico It’s cliff bluffs that end in a small beach, but perched atop the bluffs are these Mayan ruins. Very pretty place, but unfortunately very crowded most of the time.
Anyway, I’ve mentioned enough beautiful places. There are others I could throw in there, but that’s a long enough list for now.
You break my heart. Naples is unique, has amazing museums, the best pizza and the best espresso (at non tourist prices), the warmest and most fun people, great street artists, many churches (don’t miss the amazing sculpture of the veiled Christ in Sansevero Chapel), an ancient Roman acqueduct system that you can visit - some parts are filled with classic cars, another part with thousands of skulls. (http://www.cimiterofontanelle.com/it/) And that’s just for starters.
It’s like this, if you want only Hollywood style Italian beauty, stay on the Amalfi coast. And that’s a totally legit decision. However, if you want to dive into the heart and culture of the region and get a feel of what life is like outside the tourist bubble, visit this historic capital of the ancient world.
Agreed, and the great thing about that part of the world is that it only takes a short train ride round the bay of Naples to take it all in. You can have it all in the course of a day.
Naples is utterly mental…and wonderful at the same time. It didn’t remind me of anywhere else, it has a shabby, dirty vibrancy like very few other places I’ve seen.
(and you are bang-on about the pizza and coffee. Top class and budget friendly)